News

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for Outreach reviewed an evangelism strategy and draft documents of an ELCA strategic planning process. The board also elected officers and conducted other business when it met here Feb. 28- March 2. The Rev. Gary M....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The steering committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Commission for Multicultural Ministries asked the ELCA Office of the Presiding Bishop to consider a "moratorium" on reductions in authorized spending for the commission this fiscal year. The committee also adopted other resolutions, discussed two churchwide...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The spring 2003 issue of MOSAIC, the video magazine of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), tells the story of the formation of the ELCA, featuring interviews with key leaders of predecessor church bodies. The video became available March 1. This year the ELCA marks its...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The board of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Division for Church in Society (DCS) appointed 15 members to a task force that will help the church develop a social statement on education. At its meeting here Feb. 20-22, the DCS board also made provisions for...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- People and groups who share a common interest in small town and rural ministries of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are developing into an alliance. A diverse group of people representing those ministries gathered here Feb. 19-20 to imagine the alliance and to figure out...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) keep disaster response in Africa a top priority despite little attention from the secular media, according to the Rev. Y. Franklin Ishida, director for international communication, ELCA Division for Global Mission. Information about "ongoing international disasters appears as...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Family and friends will gather for a memorial service at Emanuel Lutheran Church, West Warwick, R.I., today at 7:30 p.m. (Eastern Time) for those who died at a nightclub fire last week in West Warwick. Emanuel is a congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. "Emanuel...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) challenged a Jerusalem court ruling regarding the tax status of its activities in Israel and Palestinian-controlled territories, saying the decision, if implemented, could jeopardize the LWF's humanitarian work in the region, the LWF said in a Feb. 19 news release. If the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The sounds of children echoed in the halls of True Light Lutheran Church, New York, N.Y., as the Rev. Gilbert B. Furst, director of Lutheran Disaster Response (LDR) met with staff of the "New Life Center" earlier this year. The Center, located at the church, strives to...

BEIT JALA, West Bank (ELCA) -- Twelve communicators from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) drove here in two vans from Jerusalem Feb. 2 to attend worship at a Lutheran church, but, with an Israeli curfew in place, the Lutherans wondered if anyone else would be at the church....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), a seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), and McCormick Theological Seminary, a seminary of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), are completing construction this month of McCormick's new offices on the LSTC campus. Ceremonies on Feb. 27 and...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- According to U.S. census figures released this year, Latinos may be the fastest-growing and largest ethnic group emerging in the country. Taking that into consideration, Spanish-speaking congregations of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) are putting their "God-given talents and gifts" to work to enhance and...

CHICAGO (ELCA) More than 200 stewardship staff, mission interpreters and partners coordinators volunteers who tell the stories about the work of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and others gathered for the Stewardship Leadership Conference and heard they are the "circulatory system" of the church. Staff of the ELCA...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In a Feb. 13 e-mail message to professional leaders of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the ELCA presiding bishop said he is greatly troubled by the situation between the governments of the United States and Iraq and the possibility of war. The Rev. Mark S....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- "The vast majority of this church has chosen not to be involved in this work," the Rev. Mark S. Hanson, presiding bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), told the church's Studies on Sexuality Task Force when it met here Feb. 7-9. The task force...

DENVER, Colo. (ELCA) -- The Department for Ecumenical Affairs of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was advised to continue current bilateral church dialogues, build on positive signs from recent meetings with officials of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and maintain funding for the Lutheran World Federation (LWF). The...

DENVER, Colo. (ELCA) -- Women and youth of the North American region of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) met here separately in consultations preparing for the July 21-31 LWF Assembly. Both groups laid out a series of social and political concerns, and strategies to address their concerns. The LWF is...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- In the context of the current economic climate in the United States, the stewardship ministry of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is providing the 10,766 congregations of the church opportunities to move from "scarcity thinking" toward "abundance and generosity" with a new "money leadership" approach....

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- Three U.S. church leaders, including a representative of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), joined 22 church leaders in Europe and the Middle East in opposing war in Iraq and calling for a peaceful resolution of conflicts. The Rev. Rebecca S. Larson, executive director for the...

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Task Force on Health and Health Care of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) has prepared a possible social statement on health, healing and health care that emphasizes the need for a successful health care system to be interdependent. The task force finished editing "Caring...